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THE GREAT WORKS PROJECT

a puppet play in many parts

Season 04, Episode 11

By Thomas Typewriter

(c) 2022

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FADE IN TO BLACK

From the bottom center of the screen scrolls up the following text: “04-11”. It continues upward, pausing briefly in the center then exits off the top of the frame.

FADE OUT

FADE IN

INT. B-MOUSE’S OFFICE, EVENING

LS OF B-MOUSE DOWN THE END OF THE AISLE

B-Mouse sits at a simple semi-circular writers desk in the center of his office. Stacks of blank notebooks sit to the side of the desk. He has one open, pen in hand ready to write. Rows of bookcases line the room on either side of his desk. His desk is set up in a center aisle made from the rows of book cases. The bookcases are filled with alternating rows of books and banker boxes. At the back of the center aisle is visible the door to B-Mouse’s apartment. On the door hangs a motivational poster of a giant book smashing through the middle of a brick building with the caption “Books break bricks.”

CUT TO A MS OF B-MOUSE

B-MOUSE
(thinking out loud) “In a time past. Past times. No. At the edge of a town called Smokestacks. No. Outside the town of smoke and bricks, of crowds and distraction. Not right. A witch in a town of magic.”

B-Mouse makes a wrinkled face like smelling something bad. He scribbles in his notepad.

B-MOUSE
(to self) “Outside a town of smoke and ash, whose numerous citizens call the Smokestacks, outside the shadow of the mountains made from a time past not all who escape the city seek a better life. No. How about in the cursed woods outside…nope that is just as bad.”

He stands and paces the center aisle. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. Then he pauses. Something on a shelf has caught his eye. He walks to the shelves towards the back, the back stacks, and out of sight.

CUT TO MS OF ONE OF THE SECTIONS IN THE BACK STACKS

B-Mouse walks in from stage-left. He walks over to a shelf and pulls out from a shelf of books and binders a neon splatter paint decorated trapper keeper. He opens it and peruses its contents.

B-MOUSE
“Nope.”

He puts back the trapper keeper. He grabs another from the shelf and starts to read the handwritten pages inside.

B-MOUSE
“Nope.”

He closes and re-shelves the trapper keeper. Then he spies a box on the shelf above. A simple cardboard box, with an overlapping top flap design. On one side, written in a marker with a poor penmanship is the word “Amosha”.

B-MOUSE
“What do we have here. Another relic from Thomas’ stupid years?”

B-Mouse pulls the box down. As he does, an unseen pamphlet for babysitting sitting on the top of the box falls down. B-Mouse opens the box. He shifts through the contents of the box, looking at the various index cards of juvenile drawings of anthropomorphic fantasy creatures. A few of the card he looks through include Rabbitfrog, Hand Dragon, Calibre, Eelectric, Horse Eel, Rook and Geo Wizard.

B-MOUSE
“Maybe.”

As B-Mouse considers the characters on the cards an announcement rings out over the speakers in the hallway.

Y-MOUSE
(over speaker system) “Hey everyone, lets start the emergency meeting. If you could come up to the Writer’s Room. This will probably last all night, so A-Mouse & E-Mouse should be back with the food soon.”
B-Mouse closes the box. He notices the pamphlet on the floor and picks it up.

B-MOUSE
“Now, where did this come from?”

B-Mouse reads over the pamphlet.

B-MOUSE
“We’ve never really ever done any babysitter stories. I wonder why? Probably because Thomas never babysat. (pauses) Oh wait, he was always babysitting his younger brother. (pauses) So why haven’t we written a babysitter story yet? (pauses) Maybe it’s time.”

B-Mouse holds the Amosha box one hand and the Babysitting pamphlet in the other.

CUT TO SHOT OF HIS HANDS

B-MOUSE
(moving the Amosha box closer) “But on the other hand wizards and magic are pretty cool.” (moves the Babysitter pamphlet forward in emphasis) “Yet, babysitting is something new. What to work on. Babysitter? Magic? Babysitter? Magic…”

B-Mouse moves the box so it is touching the pamphlet.

B-MOUSE
“Magic babysitter?”

CUT BACK

B-Mouse is thinking, nodding his head as the idea starts to take form.

B-MOUSE
“But we need to make it different than any of those Nanny or Poppins stories. Got to put a unique spin on it, or at least do the opposite.”

B-Mouse starts slowly walking to his desk thinking out loud.

B-MOUSE
“Okay. Lets see. Previous stories had a normal person get a magical babysitter to help. They also had kids were more out of control than evil. Okay B-Mouse, think. Think. Creativity is merely taking what exists and twisting. It is all merely a bunch of parts that can be removed and resized. Think. What can we flip. Okay. What if the kids actually were evil. Or the parents have magic but the babysitter does not. Or what if the babysitter never left. Hmm. Those are interesting. Better jot them down.”

He sets the box and pamphlet on the desk. Reaching into the top drawer he pulls out a pen and notebook. He starts jotting down ideas. He walks up the aisle towards the camera. He turns and walks off-stage stage-right. The office DOOR OPENS as he exits the office. The lights turn off. The DOOR CLOSES.

FADE OUT